President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized on Wednesday night (8) the decision of the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies to remove the vote on Provisional Measure (MP) 1303/2025 from the agendawhich would tax income from financial investments and sports betting and compensate for the repeal of the decree that provided for an increase in the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF).
The MP needed to be approved by this Wednesday (8) so as not to lose its effectiveness. With the removal of the agenda, the text expired.
“The Chamber’s decision to overturn the provisional measure that corrected injustices in the tax system is not a defeat imposed on the government, but on the Brazilian people. This measure reduced distortions by charging a fair share from those who earn and profit most. From the richest. Preventing this correction is voting against the balance of public accounts and against tax justice”, wrote the president in a post on social media.
Lula also attributed the setback suffered to the interests of the opposition and centrist parties in making the maintenance of government social programs unfeasible.
“What’s behind this decision is the bet that the country will raise less to limit public policies and social programs that benefit millions of Brazilians. It’s playing against Brazil.”
Considered essential for the fiscal balance of 2026, the MP provided for the taxation of investment funds and specific rules for the taxation of virtual assets, stock exchange operations, asset loans and foreign investors. Originally, the expectation was that the text would increase government revenue by R$20.8 billion and reduce other expenses by more than R$10 billion.
However, in order to advance in the special committee and be able to proceed to the plenary, the rapporteur of the measure, federal deputy Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP), came to make agreements with different benches to exclude the taxation of bets and investments in Agribusiness Credit Letters (LCA), Real Estate Credit Letters and Development Credit Letters (LCD). The original version of the MP provided for the taxation of gross revenue from regularized bets at a rate between 12% and 18%. LCI, LCA and LCD applications would have a rate of 5%. Even so, the MP prospered.
In the vote that removed the MP from the agenda, there were 251 votes in favor and 193 against the request, presented by the opposition.
Earlier, before the vote, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, demanded that the National Congress comply with the agreement signed with the federal government for MP approval. Haddad said that the government maintained dialogue with parliamentarians and made concessions. However, the parties in the center had already been taking an ostensible stance against the measure and celebrated the MP’s overthrow in plenary.
“Today it became clear that the small, very rich part of the country does not allow their privileges to be touched. They do not want to pay taxes like the majority of citizens. And they do not want the government to have resources to invest in policies for the population. Whoever voted in the Chamber to overturn the MP that taxed the super rich voted against the country and the people”, criticized Minister Gleisi Hoffmann, from the Secretariat for Institutional Relations (SRI) of the Presidency, responsible by the government’s political articulation.
